NATURAL HISTORY. 
280 
COTTON PLANT. 
H E fruit of this plant is the cotton 
Vr'hich is fo much ufed as a material of ma- 
nufaftures chiefly made at Manchefter. Its 
plant bears a ftalk about eight feet high, cov- 
ered with a reddilh hairy bark, divided in- 
to feveral Ihort branches. The leaves arc 
rather lefs than thofe of the fycamore ; they 
are fhaped like thofe of the vine, and are fuf- 
pended by fmall flalks adorned with a nap or 
hairy fubftance. The flowers are fine, large, 
and numerous, of a yellow colour mixed 
with red or purple, and fhaped like a bell : 
the flower is fucceeded by a fruit as large as 
a filbert, which, being ripe, opens into three 
or four partitions, where the cotton is found 
as white as fnow. Heat fwells each flake to 
the fize of an apple. There is another fort 
of cotton-tree that differs from the former 
in fize ; for this grows to four or five feet 
high ; the flowers and fruit are like the for- 
mer. Both thefe forts grow in Egypt, Sy- 
ria, Cyprus, Candia, and the Indies. In 
Jamaica, Barbadoes, and other parts of the 
^Vefl-lndies, the cotton plant grows to a to- 
lerable htight, and fpreads on every fide its 
branches : it has fmall, green, pointed 
leaves, and bears a yellow flower refembling 
in form the rofe of the fweet-briar. The 
fruit is as large as a tennis ball, and has a 
thin 
